verso

on the old cardboard base

top centered with a black pen by the artist’s own hand referred to as:

“Max Ackermann / Hymne 1960”

as well as two stamps:

a.) Not for sale / Special auction

b.) Address stamp Max Ackermann



Max Ackermann discovered abstract painting at the beginning of the 1930s. Influenced by the ideas of his teachers Adolf Hölzel and Willi Baumeister, he developed a cheerful and colorful art with a completely independent character. From the very beginning, his works combined painterly and graphic elements. Unlike many of his fellow artists, Ackermann was not originally influenced by Expressionism. His ideas revolve around musical, color-harmonic sounds, aiming for a balance between static and dynamic compositional principles, polarity and synthesis. In 1962, the artist stated: “The first force is color. Color in and of itself comes from the spectrum, which contains countless color tones. Depending on the inspiration, the corresponding sounds are extracted from the spectrum. Color theme, at the same time form theme as a unit, becomes a design element” (quoted from ‘Max Ackermann – Aspekte des abstrakten Werkes’, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, 1973, p. 9).

The painting “Hymne” from 1960 is characterized by the kinetic energy of the formal composition. Different color spaces seem to float in front of a background striped in different shades of red and violet. Some colors make the form appear to float higher, while others almost sink to the bottom. A rhythmic dynamic of movement develops across the picture surface, which does not allow the viewer’s eye to rest



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